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Where Progressive Thinkers and Truth Seekers Gather to be active Public Citizens and Peacfully Pursue Social Justice and engage in conversation and debate about Truth about Government and the Economy and Investing and where Freedom, Justice, Equality and Fairness aren’t just slogans but foundational Principles of Free and Humane Citizens who care about their brothers and sisters on this Earth. Civil Debate and Solution oriented thinking and educational resources and an intellectual community are welcome here. This is designed to be the ultimate town hall and resource for information and education and opinion to counter balance the increasingly homogeneous establishment news media and spin. In the spirit of JFK, RFK and MLK, this site seeks the path of peaceful resistance to injustice and the pursuit of freedom, justice, social justice and the Spirit of the real America.

And it was operational at the same time we were active on the Microsoft Money Talk site.

For those who have not followed the group since its inception here at Duffminster Times, or have only more recently found an interest in the crisis we face, there is a government document available which very closely tracks the crisis we discuss.

Thorstein Bunde Veblen, (né Torsten Bunde Veblen) (1857 - 1929), an American born of Norwegian immigrant parents, was mentioned in an Economics Class by a young student who has aged considerably since then, and the annoyed Professor waved off the mention of the name with a sweep of his hand to some place behind him and what can be labeled a "desultory sneer". No more was said of that issue in public. Veblen was not well received by Economists.

However the stalwarts named as victims this time are surprising to an extent in one sense and to be expected in another. The reference is to those facing disappointment: tech giants Microsoft and Apple, Gambling giant Caesar's and the expected SSI, Social Security's disability support.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday she was open to raising a threshold for determining a bank's systemic importance and indicated that U.S. lenders had made progress in their submissions of so-called living will plans this month.

We hope that the Greek citizens, when asked by their children if they personally accepted the Troika ultimatum in 2015, will be in position to answer them without lowering their heads. We also hope that the leaders of the country will find the will and mind to meet the historical challenge it is facing."

The gist was: IMF is now looking at a combination of currencies which could supplement the U$D with some intent for the future that was hazy.

It's mentioned here because of the attack the dollar has been going through, the purpose of which was to keep the dollar high and steady by any means in order to support the value of investments and holdings in US bonds and currency. In view of the lack of support for gold, the question would then be: in view of that effort, aren't all the rumored machinations self-defeating?

Back in May (5/17/15) we questioned “normalcy” in economics in a comment entitled The economy and resuming normal operations. In the thread ” The Prosecution is not resting in deals leading into the crisis.”

The story is in the fine print. Prodding into details tells a larger story with more meaning than can be found in press releases from hired help with impressive credentials. We hear and read of Fed executives casting out opinions from all points of the compass, suggesting every policy path for many reasons, here and there a valid one.

The conference organised by CEPR , the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis, Imperial College London and the Swiss National Bank, brought together academics, practioners and policymakers to discuss the relevance of a zero lower bound theory and the realities of an effective lower bound.

In Providence, Rhode Island, Friday, May 22, 2015 Janet Yellen addressed the Chamber of Commerce and laid down some promises with accompanying alternate scenarios. Will we have increased interest rates by year's end? It all depends.

On jobs? The line of initial unemployment applicants increased slightly; the US/Phila. Business Survey is below expectations 8.3 expected - 6.7 actual; existing housing sales are lower than expected again; and the Wall Street three major indices are treading water, trying to decide what to do.

At last view - just before 10:30 AM EDT. Wall Street's single digit plus figures appeared to be reaching out for support.

Not one, not two, but several cases resulting in charges of impropriety are still under long-time consideration in US courts. These deals are of questionable character involving large deals, between banks, government FSEs (Financial Services Enterprises) with manipulation of values, terms and conditions which present inordinate adjustments to create “asymmetric” and favorable conditions prior to consummation of transactions. (Street language equivalent equals scam!)

Another trip back in time - April 24, 2013, Richard Koo, at the Zagreb conference sponsored by the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, this one centered on "Redesigning Global and Regional Finance", discussed his "balance sheet recession" hypothesis, the one advanced in his 2008 book, "The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession" - lessons, BTW, which were ignored completely as global finance slipped and slid its varied ways along the same path into our own "Great Recession" of the 2000s which is now evolving into the Second Depression.

Comment has been made on duffminster's Times to the effect that job statistics do not add up. Employment gains are listed on a monthly basis and "New Applications for Unemployment compensation" are reported on a weekly basis. It is a mismatch to report that 186.000 new jobs were created last month but the last four weekly reports average about 280,000 to 300,000 and the headlines blast the news that the job situation is "firming up".

During the 1960s and 1970s the name of David M. Rose became known to O&G. Rose was an MIT Professor whose specialty was energy - electricity, energy resources of coal, oil, etc. This was back when the Scientific American magazine was chock full of informative articles of real significance.

. . . and so the stock markets dipped this Friday, the thirteenth, March, 2015: Bloomberg released its ECO US Surprise Index appraisal of US progress. Bottom line? Data "fell to the lowest since 2009, when the nation was in the deepest recession since the Great Depression." Citigroup's assessment was in agreement.

I find it fascinating how some things jogged from memory can illuminate. My focus has been on supernova... the idea that at one point after the 1980's our corporations would grow too large and employ so few that they would burst like supernovae, as opposed to implode as they did in 1983 from downsizing when too much of them were reliant on US productivity.

When an economic analysis is offered, the audience expects no sooner have the lights been extinguished and the crew relaxes, the walls will cave in and everything will implode; or, if not, there is little substance to the evaluation and it can be swept away.

At Bussels, October 14, 2009 ECFIN 6th Annual Research conference of the Economic and Financial Affairs Directorate of the European Commission

“If all subprime mortgages had gone to default, total loss to investors would have amounted to a few hundred billion dollars. . . American and European governments and International Agencies have committed more than 10 times that amount trying to stabilize the system.”

A short discussion reproduced in the Tsunami Thread about five years ago - March, I believe - which would then have put the introduction back a month or so prior (as always: the recall could be mistaken) - explained in short detail the intent of the Fed to shift everyone into a negative interest rate environment. Simple enough, cut interest to the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) and allow inflation to take over at a higher rate, debasing the value of your money. The process yields cheaper money to pay off the more expensive debt incurred.

All manner of speculation is replacing common sense these days: Oil was touted to reach as far down as 25 while a Saudi prince counsels bid goodbye to thoughts of $100 crude and OPEC, now with Iran's unofficial approval continues to pump and distribute to an over-supplied market; and China is supposedly smuggling gold into their treasury while the small Swiss franc creates a stir in Europe.